Stories about two

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Rashid Latif and Moin Khan are easily the finest wicketkeepers Pakistan has ever produced. Which of the two was a better choice is debatable but both had the ability to represent the national team on any and every platform.
Be it Shoaib Akhtar’s deadly pace or the reverse swing of Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram or the doosras of Saqlain Mushtaq, wicket-keeping wasn’t a problem for Pakistan as long as these two men played for the country. During their tenure, the captains even enjoyed the special leverage to use one wicketkeeper as a replacement for the other for a good ...

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The house is the same but he’s not here. Why then is it that everywhere I turn, I feel his presence?
The garden he worked so hard on day after day, month after month, blooms but his corner is empty. No music blasting from among the flower beds, no hoeing of loose earth, no planting of flower buds, no watering of plants, no clearing away of rubbish, no crackling of leaves burning. The garden looks gorgeous, a testament to the hard work of the smiling gardener who tended it with so much dedication.
He was like mercury- here, there, everywhere. Happiness ...

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Money, top class football, and talented football players – these are some of the things that French side Association Sportive de Monaco, or simply AS Monaco, is now known for. The team which was relegated two seasons ago from the French Ligue 1 has come back with relish after spending two seasons in the lower division of French football.
Having been relegated following the 2010-11 season, Monaco struggled to clinch first place in their first season of the Ligue 2 of the 2011-12 season. However, in the 2012-13 season AS Monaco came back ten times stronger to dominate the Ligue 2 contenders ...

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Khaled Hosseini has won many fans with both “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” as he enraptured readers all over the world by humanising the tragic recent history of the Afghan people.
While similar to his previous work, Hosseini’s new book “And the Mountains Echoed” is a masterpiece that will capture readers instantly, with a richly woven web of interweaving and gripping stories tracking the fates of multiple generations from their origin in a rural Afghan village to their dispersion across the world – from Kabul to Pakistan to Paris to California and beyond.
Hosseini has a gift ...

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Child prodigies are an eclectic bunch; being on the fast-track in the lane of life at such a tender age makes them so. Although, some go on to commit suicide, turn to crime and develop drink and drug problems, we remain irrevocably fascinated by them.
We are overcome by their childhood achievements and allured by the fame and recognition they bring to the family. Secretly we wish in the depths of our hearts that our children would also do the same.
However, what we fail to realise is the immense pressure that these kids are put under, the long hours that they spend ...

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After decades of abuse over corruption, politicisation, complicity with criminals, outright disregard for their own duties, and their inexplicable fear of unarmed lynch mobs, the Punjab police showed that there is at least one group whom they don’t fear- their own- when they pointed their guns at the Islamabad police to protect a known hatemonger from arrest.
Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (read Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) leader Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, along with fellow extremist and Jamaatud Dawa (read Lashkar-e Taiba) chief Hafiz Saeed were wanted by the city police, for breaking a ban on their entry into the city, when both appeared ...

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Show me a sporting rivalry greater than Pakistan-India and I will show you the cure for cancer!
Those who want to rebuff me at this stage by pointing out that “The Ashes” is the number one rivalry in the game, can save their breaths. Pakistan and India have fought three wars against each other! How many have Australia and England fought?
As rivalries go, they don’t come any bigger than this. The tension is palpable in the air when these two great cricketing nations go head to head.
The last time these teams competed against each other, it was the World Cup semi-final almost ...

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Until some years ago, I reckoned ice cream to be the best thing to happen to this world. But that was of course, until the obsession with healthier alternatives took over (and yeah I grew up too!). Here is where frozen yogurt entered my universe; the healthier treat with the consistency of soft serve ice cream, but having fewer calories, fat and perhaps sugar too. And I realize how delightful an experience it is to indulge in the relatively guilt-free goodness of frozen yogurt.
The dilemma, however, is that the local market is still in its nascent stage, and there ...

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This mid-week in Premier League saw some interesting battles being fought at the top half of the table as well as between the relegation bound teams. It was also one of the rare occasions when the match day’s late kick-off (7:45 pm) nearly collided with the Transfer Day deadline that ended at 11:00 pm. All this made for an exciting day.
Let’s start from football itself from the top half.
Manchester City, fuelled by the Arab Oil-gazillions, started the week right at the top of the table and determined to tighten it grasp on the No.1 spot after being dumped out of the ...

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Hosni Mubarak’s “deteriorating” health just two weeks before the former Egyptian statesman is scheduled to stand trial seems all too convenient.
As doctors at Sharm el-Sheikh International Hospital in the Red Sea resort community, where Mubarak has been admitted since mid-April, keep denying reports of the former Egyptian president’s “worsening condition”, his lawyer continues to feed the media reports alleging that Mubarak isn’t getting any better.
On Sunday, Mubarak’s lawyer Farid El Deeb said that the former president had slipped into “a complete coma”. However, Egyptian state media soon reported that the hospital director had denied the report.
Just last month, Deeb ...